Thursday, May 11, 2006

Chik'n Sandwich & Fries

Well, with my last four lunchboxes requiring a good amount of cooking on my part, I decided to take it a little bit easy today and rely on some of the vegan food items filling my freezer these days. I like to cook, but it is nice to take a break sometime and use food products that are already prepared. Of course you pay the price by consuming higher amounts of things like fat, simple carbs and sodium, but I think it's okay to eat these things sometimes, just not every single day like I used to.

Also, don't forget that the pictures of my lunchbox are now interactive. If you put your pointer over each item in the lunchbox, a little text box should pop up and tell you what each one is. You don't need to click, unless you want to, and then you will see a larger version of the picture, but for the text box descriptions just move your pointer over each compartment and stop. If anyone has any browser problems with this, please let me know. I hope I did everything right. It feels kind of funny to me, moving the pointer around on the lunchbox and having different things pop up. It almost feels like I'm actually playing with my lunch. Oh well, I washed my hands so it's okay.

Today I just brought a Boca Spicy Chik'n Patty on a storebought whole wheat bun. I haven't had time lately to make my own buns again. I really need to do that. Also, some of you might be interested in this. The last time I had a Boca product on here, someone pointed out in the comments section of the blog that their products DO contain GMOs. I know that's a really big issue for a lot of people, and there are many who refuse to consume any type of genetically modified soybeans. I have to pick my battles though, and I'm not perfect, so right now the animal rights issue outweighs the GMO issue for me. I DO think it's important, and as soon as I can locate a vegan "chicken" patty which doesn't contain GMOs I will immediately switch. The bummer though is that I am probably prolonging the wait for such a product by supporting a product which DOES use them. Well, like everything else, I see both sides of this issue and could sit and go back and forth all day. I totally understand people who boycott these products, but for me, a fairly new vegan, this product which enables me to continue to be happy with what I am eating while not contributing to the death of innocent animals, is an important tool in helping me stay vegan. DANG IT! Why can't they just use non-GMOs. CURSES! I'm writing a letter! And if anyone knows of an alternative product please let me know.

Okay, enough talk about that dang Chik'n patty. I also put in some Ore-Ida french fries that I baked in the oven. Then I made some broccoli slaw using some broccoli slaw mix that I picked up in the produce section of the grocery store and mixed with some Grapeseed Oil Vegenaise, apple cider vinegar and celery seeds (instead of sugar, as suggested by a helpful reader in the comments section of this blog. THANKS!). And if you notice, I didn't bring any Vegenaise to put on my sandwich like I normally do because I figured I was getting enough of it in my slaw.

For dessert I just threw in a Cherry Pie Larabar. As you know I am addicted to them. They were on sale this week at the grocery store too. Woo-hoo! Needless to say, I stocked up.

Well, that does it for Thursday. I am still thinking about tomorrow's lunch. On the one hand, I've got just a little bit of that homemade seitan left over that I need to use up NOW. On the other hand, I was thinking about doing a FAST FOOD FRIDAY since I normally only have to work half a day on Friday. Hmmmmm... I guess I'll decide tonight.

Thanks for checking in and have a great day. See you on Friday.
BAKED FRENCH FRIESBROCCOLI SLAWCHIK'N SANDWICH W/ WHOLE WHEAT BUNCHERRY PIE LARABARCHERRY PIE LARABARFORK & SPOONFORK & SPOON

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's not chicken. I know chicken. And that's not chicken.

kennyboy said...

No chickens allowed.

Chicken = NOT VEGAN (say in appropriate big booming voice from the heavens)

Of course, genetically modified soybeans don't sound all that great either. :sigh:

Theresa said...

Yummy lunch, as always :)

The interactive thing worked for me on yesterday's photo, but not today's. Maybe it's my computer, but I thought I would let you know...

Also, just FYI... Boca is owned by Philip Morris. I know that you can only do so much, and I'm not asking you to not eat them, but if it comes down to 2 GMO products, I would personally choose the non-boca option. I don't know of any better suggestions; I usually grab the store brand (if they are vegan, which happens about 1/2 the time) if I want soy chicken, which is rarely. Just wanted to give you that info, so you know what you're eating.... sorry if you'd rather not! (I mean this in the nicest, least attack-y way, although I'm not sure if it's coming across as such over the interweb...).

Keep up the good work!

scs said...

I think it's great that you're writing a letter to Boca. (I was the one who mentioned the GMO issue earlier.) The only thing that will change company policy on things like GMOs is consumer response. GMOs are frightening, unfortunately already in an estimated 70-80% of grocery store food, are largely untested, and are unlabelled.

The good news is, if you eat healthy and make a lot of your own food, as you do, you will at least be avoiding more of them than the average person (GMOs are frequently in the form of corn syrup and soy lecithin, major ingredients in processed food). Eating "organic" food of course also ensures you are not eating genetically-modified organisms. The other good news is that, being vegan, you are avoiding all the genetically-modified ingredients in the feed that is given to the vast majority of animals in this country.

It's still a scary matter, and you're right to be conscious of it. Anyone who has the time should check out "The Future of Food" on the issue: a really great movie that ends on a very positive, farmers' market, veggie-friendly note.

I am so wanting to try these Larabars! I checked at Whole Foods, and I couldn't find them. I'm going to keep looking. The coleslaw looks great!

kennyboy said...

No, I like to learn these things. It comes across on the internet to me okay. I don't take it as attack-y.

I just made one small change to the code for the image map on today's pic, it was the only difference from the way I did it yesterday. I would be curious to know if it works for you now. Of course you might need to refresh your page to make sure you get the change I just made.

I think I'm just gonna try making my own "chicken" patties and then that would solve the whole dilema. I've already decided that I'm never buying fake "steak" strips or "ground beef" again because I honestly haven't found anything better than that homemade seitan I made this week.

Several of my cookbooks have "fried-chicken" patties in them which are just made out of slices of "chicken-style" seitan which you then dip in flour, soymilk and bread crumbs and then fry. I think adding some nutritional yeast into the breading also helps make it taste more like fried chicken.

They wouldn't be nice perfectly round patties simulating ground up and pressed chicken, but they would probably be more like just a whole piece of chicken breast that you would get on a more expensive chicken sandwich.

Maybe perfecting something to replace this chicken patty would be a good project.

Heck, there's even a recipe for a raw "chicken" patty in Alissa Cohen's book which I haven't even tried yet.

Anonymous said...

Uh-oh - I just entered a long comment and I think it got deleted. Well, the gist of it was that you should check out Health is Wealth chicken free nuggets and patties. Personally I like their patties better than boca, and I think they seem like a good small company. They also make vegan buffalo wings, which are a bit spicy for me, but you seem to like spicy, so maybe you'd like them.

Theresa said...

The labels work now!

#70 grand--Yep, sadly, Philip Morris is the 2nd largest food producer. They've changed their name recently to "Altria" which sounds so nice and peaceful, but it's all the same people with the same policies. Check out http://www.altria.com/about_altria/1_2_2_ourcompanies.asp to find out all of their holdings. They come in second to Unilever, originally a soap company, who are equally horrible, albeit for slightly different reasons. Ugh, that's why it's easier to stay away from processed food altogether... you don't have to worry about who's making it. It's tough sometimes to give up convenience for conscience, but I guess all we can do is try our best, and do things like write letters (w00t, kenny!) and flex our $$ muscle.

Sarah said...

i eat the health is wealth chicken patties sometimes - not sure about GMOs (i haven't had them in awhile) but they aren't bad!